Tears of Izumi
by Umi's Guardian Angel
Summary: A frustrated Izumi decides he hasn't had enough fun collecting souls lately, and decides to have a bit of fun with his new assignment. A bit violent.


Izumi sighed resignedly to himself. "Meroko, collecting souls is such a bother; besides, you always yell at me whenever I help you with a mission." They were both in a simple office, standing and facing one another.

"You are my partner, after all, so I don't think it's unreasonable to expect your help," Meroko huffed. "And the reason I yell at you is because you insist on torturing every soul you collect. A soul that you retrieve is basically guaranteed to never be allowed to rest in peace."

Izumi's sadistic smile became a dangerous mask of seething anger. "And tell me, my dear Meroko, why I should care?" he said in an irritated tone. "We, as Shinigami, are never allowed to find peace. We are trapped in this never-ending maze for all of eternity. Why, then, should I help souls find peace? I've tried that on occasion, and being so nice to them is endlessly boring. It is much more fun collecting souls the way I usually do." He then looked up to Meroko's face, and was surprised to see glistening tears rolling down her face. "Meroko?" he queried.

"Izumi," she began quietly, "I know how you feel. But you're only harming yourself doing the things you do. So stop it, please!" she yelled out in desperation, tears still streaking down her face.

Izumi looked up at her face with an expression of attentive non-interest. "So what if I am harming myself?" he demanded. "That is my choice to make, not yours. I collect the souls as planned. There are no regulations preventing me having a little fun with them. I will do as I please, with or without your approval. So I suggest you just leave me alone," he coldly informed her.

"But I… hic… I can't. Because I love you!" she yelled out, staring straight at him, still weeping uncontrollably. She then turned her back on him and flew away, leaving Izumi to himself.

Izumi grunted to himself, and sat down at a desk, resting his chin on his fist. "So you love me, eh? As if you haven't told me 84 times already." He turned and stared moodily out an open window, a pensive visage masking his brooding mind.

"Tanaka, eh? How unoriginal. I think I've collected over thirty souls named Tanaka in the past two months," Izumi grumbled to himself. "With such a boring name for my target, I'll simply have to invent some way to have fun with him, now won't I?" He began flying in the direction of the Tanaka residence.

Izumi had decided to himself that he would go out and retrieve the soul for this mission himself, seeing as how Meroko was probably in no condition to go on a mission right now. Besides, it wasn't as if he of all Shinigami actually required assistance for such a routine mission as this.

Izumi floated above the Tanaka residence now, thinking to himself. "You know," he said, speaking only to his own self, "I think I'll take a few days to really torture this guy. I haven't had a real bit of fun in a while. He doesn't need to die yet, after all. Hehe…." he snickered evilly to himself. He put a simple spell on the roof of the house above his young victim's room, and stuck his head through. The youth was sleeping peacefully. _Perfect, _Izumi thought to himself. _I'll wipe that peaceful look of contentment from this young fool's face._

After a few minutes, the boy began to twist and turn in his bed, while Izumi casually looked over his list of souls to collect for the next few days. He smiled sadistically to himself as Tanaka continued to suffer from his horrible nightmares.

"Hey, what's wrong with Tanaka-kun?" one student whispered to another the next day at Tanaka's high school.

"I don't know, but his face is really white," the other student observed. "He doesn't look good at all. Why did he come to school? And why is he in such a rush?"

Tanaka, for his part, was desperately running. School had just gotten out for the day, and he was rushing to the roof as quickly as he could. He knew from his dream the night before that she would be there. He threw open the door and burst onto the rooftop. And there she was. "Mio!!" he yelled desperately. "Stop!!" He ran towards his closest childhood friend as fast as he could, but there was nothing he could do to alter the fate he had seen laid out for them.

She jumped.

Tanaka fell to the ground, weeping uncontrollably.

And Izumi marked down the first soul of many in his cruel torture of Tanaka.

"Who is that boy?" a man asked his female companion as they were walking down the street."

"I'm not sure," she said back. "But it looks as if he belongs in a hospital. His face is white as a sheet. He really shouldn't be running as fast as he is."

But Tanaka couldn't afford to slow down. He was rushing as fast as he could to the nearest park, desperately searching for the tree he had seen in his dream. It was 6:00 in the morning, and he was hoping that the man wouldn't be around by the time he got there.

But he was, and he was already lying in a pool of his own blood, the murder trail left cold.

Tanaka stood there for a few moments in disbelieving shock. His dream had suggested the murder would happen later in the day. Then, the smell of death got to him, and he began retching horribly.

"Wow, I'm surprised that Tanaka is actually in school after what happened two days ago," one girl said to the rest of her friends. "They were really close, right?"

"That's what I heard," another one said. "But he still looks really bad."

Tanaka stared with eyes full of horror at his homeroom teacher as he began the day's lessons. The teacher was going to die, and Tanaka was convinced there was nothing he could do to stop it after the events of the past two days.

But nothing happened like it had in the dream. After school was out, and the teacher was still alive, he yelled out in frustration in the middle of his classroom. "Stop messing with me!!" And his head fell to his desktop, tears falling freely from his face.

All chatter in the classroom ceased immediately. All faces turned to him, and they started whispering behind his back. At this point, Tanaka no longer cared who thought he was crazy.

"And why should I?" Izumi demanded of Tanaka, floating directly in front of him. Tanaka looked sharply up with profound shock and desperation in his eyes. Izumi knew that as one soon to die, Tanaka would be the only one able to see or hear him. "I am an angel simply giving you an opportunity to foresee and prevent people's deaths. You succeeded today. Should you not be happy?"

Tanaka, unable to sufficiently process what was happening to him, fainted.

When he awoke, he was in the nurse's office at the school, with his homeroom teacher watching over him. He smiled down at Tanaka, and asked gently, "Tell me what's been going on with you. You haven't been yourself for the past few days…."

Tanaka was unable to answer, because at that moment, the teacher's throat split open, and blood stained Tanaka's horrified visage. He screamed out in stark terror.

Tanaka later awoke in his own bed at home. He had been cleaned of the blood covering his face, but the horror and desperation remained. It was at that moment that Izumi appeared again in front of him. However, this time, with skillful use of illusion it appeared as if he only had one black wing, his eyes shone an uncanny shade of red, and he was also holding a terrible looking scythe.

"Aren't…. you the…. angel….??" Tanaka said brokenly, stepping off the bed onto the floor.

"No matter how kind the angel," Izumi said in a cold, emotionless voice, "they can still become fallen."

The scythe flashed out, and Tanaka's body fell to the cold floor, lifeless.

"Izumi," Meroko said in a dangerous tone. "Don't you think you've gone just a bit far this time?"

"He can't even face his dear Mio after what I did to him," Izumi replied. "It was a lot of fun. One of my best works. You should try it sometime," he suggested coolly.

"I realize you resent the fact that you are punished as a Shinigami," Meroko began, "but because we are Shinigami, we should be _helping _those souls, not torturing them. Why do you continuously lead yourself down this path of self-destruction?"

Izumi's patience snapped. "Because I can, that's why! Now get out and leave me alone!" He turned his back on her.

But Meroko didn't leave. Izumi felt her arms wrap around him. "I can't leave you alone," she whispered into his ear, "because I love you so much."

After she said this, Izumi's anger flared once again. He pushed her roughly off of him, causing her to let out a cry of surprise, and she fell to the ground with a thud. He then quickly disappeared through the floor, and without hesitation began flying. He did not care where, but he decided he must get away for a while.

_I'm still in that railroad crossing, _Izumi thought to himself, as a single, unacknowledged tear rolled down his cheek.


End file.
